Ripples

Those of us who are divided between or live in between one or two countries have lots in common. That’s clear.

We speak or understand more than one language. We travel more, perhaps. We repeatedly tell the same story once we’re home. We’re made understood in both countries but are we really comprehended?

We’ll always be the ones with double standards, the ones with a wider perspective, the ones who accommodate themselves to foreign bedrooms only to get a grasp of a nuclear family. We’ll always be too early, too late, out of the equation; rarely within it.

But then one day, you may find yourself at the heart of it. At the heart of a family which has nothing to do with you but for which you have a lot to acclaim for. Then what do you do? Do you opt to keep on your own way, pursue you destiny, if you can say that, or do you opt to keep a strong leg within the equation? Let’s put it this way: Who do you spend Christmas with? Yes – it’s that time of the year again.

Us ‘globalised’ people can send ripples of joy across the world in seconds, we can acclaim freedom in all its glory and we can attest to a contemporary lifestyle. Yet all this has nothing to do with family has it? There’s nothing comforting about living away from your close ones. However much you abide to your own quirks. It’s got to be said.